Afghanistan’s labor market has undergone profound structural changes under Taliban rule, with women’s participation in the workforce plunging to just 5.1 percent, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a report issued Tuesday.
The figure represents a dramatic decline from 18.3 percent recorded in 2019, before the Taliban returned to power. The ILO said the sharp fall reflects an exceptional level of exclusion of women from economic activity and has fundamentally altered the structure of Afghanistan’s labor market.
According to the report, women’s labor-force participation fell particularly sharply in 2022, dropping to less than one-third of its 2020 level. The ILO estimates that Afghanistan now has the second-lowest rate of female labor-force participation in the world.
The consequences extend beyond individual women who have lost access to employment.
The ILO warned that Afghanistan’s labor market is increasingly dependent on men as women are pushed out of productive economic activity, creating deeper structural imbalances in an economy already facing severe employment and livelihood pressures.
At the same time, male employment is estimated to have increased, with the male employment rate in 2026 projected to be around 22 percent higher than its 2020 level.
However, the increase has not been sufficient to absorb the broader pressures created by population growth and limited employment opportunities.
The overall employment-to-population ratio is estimated at 32.5 percent, more than four percentage points below its 2020 level, according to the ILO.
The figures present a stark contradiction for a country struggling to rebuild its economy. While Afghanistan needs a larger productive workforce, Taliban restrictions have pushed a substantial part of its population further away from formal economic activity.
The ILO warned that excluding women from the economy carries consequences for the country’s long-term resilience.
“Afghanistan cannot create a resilient labor market by depriving a large part of the population of economic activity,” the ILO’s Afghanistan chief said, stressing that expanding women’s access to productive employment is essential for improving livelihoods and supporting inclusive economic development.
The organization also called for greater employment opportunities for returnees, young people and other vulnerable workers, arguing that productive employment must become a central component of Afghanistan’s economic policy.
The ILO urged the Taliban administration to place productive employment at the heart of policymaking and called for greater support for the private sector, labor-intensive industries and small businesses.
The report highlights an increasingly difficult economic equation under Taliban rule.
Afghanistan needs jobs, investment, productive businesses and a broader workforce to support economic recovery. Yet restrictions imposed on women have sharply reduced the pool of people able to participate in the labor market, while broader employment growth remains below the level required to keep pace with population growth.
The impact is particularly serious because women’s exclusion from employment does not end with the loss of an individual salary.
When women are prevented from working, families lose potential income, businesses lose skilled workers and the economy loses productive capacity. Over time, the consequences can extend into household welfare, human capital development and the country’s ability to build a sustainable workforce.
The ILO’s findings therefore add an economic dimension to the wider consequences of Taliban restrictions on Afghan women.
The regime’s policies have already severely constrained women’s access to education and employment. The labor-market figures now show what such restrictions mean in economic terms: a country attempting to recover from years of conflict is simultaneously shutting millions of potential contributors out of productive economic life.
For Afghanistan, the challenge is no longer simply creating more jobs.
It is creating an economy in which the entire population can contribute to rebuilding the country.
The ILO’s warning makes clear that sustainable economic recovery will remain difficult unless Afghanistan reverses the structural exclusion of women and expands productive employment across society.
The ILO’s figures show that women’s exclusion is reshaping Afghanistan’s labor market, making the economic cost of excluding women from work central to any assessment of the Taliban’s recovery claims.
